A second Aurora man has admitted to his role in a 2014 gang-motivated shooting on North Fourth Street in the city which wounded a woman.
Arturo Trejo, 22, was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to aggravated battery with a firearm as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Trejo and 34-year-old Ajaie Martin were originally charged with multiple counts, including attempted murder, in connection to the June 2014 shooting.
Martin is currently serving a 12-and-a-half year sentence after a guilty plea to aggravated battery with a firearm charge in September 2015. Trejo had been scheduled to stand trial last week, but the case was held over to finalize the plea.
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According to authorities and court documents, the two men are known gang members. They waited in a driveway in the 200 block of North Fourth during the early morning of June 14, 2014 and fired multiple shots into a residence after lights were turned on and they saw movement. One bullet struck and critically injured a then-43-year-old woman who was inside
Court records indicate Trejo made statements while in jail that the shooting was in retaliation against a rival gang which had killed his brother. The residence was affiliated with the other gang, which is why it was targeted, he said.
“(Trejo) initially claimed that he could not (retaliate) because his family was in mourning. Eventually (he) changed his mind, grabbed a shotgun and went out into the neighborhood,” court records state.
Trejo fired the shotgun once in hopes of drawing out other gang members, but soon returned to a nearby apartment where he changed clothes and, with Martin, grabbed guns before heading to the eventual shooting site, the documents explain.
Trejo and Martin were captured after being tracked to the apartment on the same block as the shooting, police previously said.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News